[PAelise]

I am a big guy (250 lbs.) and I was wondering what would happen if I were to drive with a person of equal weight in my Elise with me. How dangerous is it to exceed the weight limits that Lotus states as max for the cabin.

 

[proskills]

I am about 230 lbs, and my track instructor was about 280 lbs. It was fine, but I lost 51 bhp.

 

[carlover]

I imagine it would be a tight fit, if nothing else!

I never exceeded the max load of the Elise, but I did exceed it in a little rental I drove; the max was 800 lbs and I had 1100 lbs in it. Nothing came of it, but the handling suffered badly. When making s turns the car felt exceedingly unstable. YMMV

 

[Baysailor]

I am currently running about 260 lbs and regularly have passengers that are in the 200 ~ 250 lbs range. While you can tell a difference performance wise, there is no problem at all.

 

[...m...]

...you should be fine with about five hundred pounds total...

 

[PAelise]

I removed the snorkel so I figured it would be fine

Thanks for everyone's input!